1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to controlling populations of bont ticks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Protecting livestock from ticks is a major concern of the agriculture industry. Ticks pierce the skin of animals causing infection and are known to spread disease. Bont ticks, a variety of ticks commonly found in Africa and the Caribbean, are known to spread the fatal heartwater disease responsible for the death of many cattle. Amblyomma variegatum, Amblyomma hebraeum, Amblyomma gemma and Amblyomma lepidum are all members of the bont tick family.
Over the years, many methods have been developed for controlling tick populations. One common practice used in many countries, including developing countries, is to spray the entire animal with a pesticide. Such spraying operations can pose environmental hazards for the surrounding area as well as health hazards for individuals working near the spraying facility. Using decoys in combination with a pesticide is an attractive alternative to spraying the entire animal. Less pesticide is required since the ticks will be attracted by the decoy to the site where the pesticide is located. Many chemical and visual lures have been used in the past with varying degrees of success. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,161 and U.S. Pat. No. 229,222 show the uses of visual lures shaped like an animal or plant, respectively. Pheromone attractants have also been used in combination with pesticides. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,888,361 to Sonenshine et al. discloses a plastic decoy shaped like a female tick which is impregnated with a sex attraction pheromone, mounting pheromone and a pesticide. In Sonenshine et al., the sex attraction pheromone and mounting pheromone were selected to take advantage of feeding and mating characteristics of many ticks wherein a fed male tick will detach from a host in response to an attraction pheromone and attempt to copulate with a female tick in response to a mounting pheromone.
A problem with using decoys is that they must be specific for the pest to be destroyed. If the ticks to be destroyed do not respond to the decoy which is used, the protection scheme will be ineffective. For example, the Sonenshine et al. tick decoy is not likely to be useful in killing bont ticks. Since bont ticks feed in clusters, there is a high probability that a fed male will mate with a female in the cluster rather than leave the cluster and mount a female decoy. Moreover, there are other problems with the Sonenshine et al. device that make it unattractive. First, the Sonenshine et al. decoy only kills male ticks, not female ticks or nymphs. Second, the Sonenshine et al. decoy operates after a male has been fed. Therefore, bont ticks carrying disease will have already infected a host animal before being attracted to a decoy having sex attractant and mounting pheromones.